Thursday, March 20, 2025
Let us begin today's post with some good news . . .
Our fun loving OT, Moha, finally
had surgery on his broken leg yesterday
If his WhatsApp messages are any kind of barometer, he is in good spirits and the surgery to repair both a broken tibia and fibula was a smashing success.
After entering this hospital in Oviedo last Saturday night, he was finally discharged today.
He is officially listed as "doubtful" for Sunday's game in Zaragoza.
After yesterday's busy day in Ribadesella, Laurie and I opted to stay at home mostly to work on a few last minute details for the Mariners game and to set up our traditional season ending travel adventure.
While we had a general idea of where we wanted to go, the specter of a possible play down game made planning difficult.
The Spanish Federation had finally pontificated that this year there will not be a play-down game between the two last place teams in the Serie A's Western and Eastern Conferences. Instead, using specific criteria, the team deemed to be this year's worst Serie A club will be relegated to Serie B in 2026.
Now things were clear as to our travel window, our last game will be played on Saturday, March 29th at home against the Osos Rivas and we fly home to Camarillo on Sunday, April 6th.
Thus we had ourseles an eight day travel window.
We decided to start our adventure by flying somewhere on Monday, March 31st and returning to Gijón on Thursday, April 3rd.
This would give us two days back in Gijón to pack and say our goodbyes before heading home to California.
But where were we headed?
We opted for a somewhat exotic locale.
Morocco
Marrakech, Morocco to be specific
It would be our first time setting foot on the African continent and we had heard great things about this city from teammates who had visited Marrakech in the past.
While I'm looking forward to
diving into Moroccan culture . . .
. . . and cuisine, I also know that . . .
. . . the famed Marrakech Medina . . .
. . . and its numerous shopping
opportunities will loom large
for my travel partner
We had first considered going to another key city in Morocco, Casablanca, but we could not get the much needed Letters of Transit to exit that city at the end of our potential stay.
From the glorious Summer of 1969 and Crosby, Stills and Nash:
Living the dream every day . . .
This weekend's slate of Serie A games
Outside of our Mariners (1-5) at Zaragoza (1-5) Battle to Avoid Relegation Bowl, the other marquee matchup is the Eastern Conference game that sees the Badalona Dracs (6-1) at the Terrassa Reds (4-1-1).
In the evening, I was off to another practice with the Mariners.
Our three imports were already
hard at work . . .
. . . when I arrived 30 minutes
before the start of practice
Now that was a great sign.
Over at our Junior Flag team's
practice, a whopping 11 players
were having at it!
Remember, flag football is a five-on-five affair in Spain.
I think that this is the first time that I have seen double digit numbers at one of their practices.
Another great sign.
Four of these flag playing Juniors play key roles on our Senior Tackle team too.
This coming Saturday, the four of them will play in a home flag football game at 10:00 a.m. before boarding the bus at 1:00 p.m. for the seven hour drive to our hotel in Zaragoza.
Dedication.
It was Thursday, my favorite practice night of any week because afterwards we were again going out to a late night meal.
A huge GRACIAS to Kike for picking up Laurie in the half hour between the end of his Senior Flag practice and the end of our Senior Tackle workout to go dine at . . .
One of Gijón's best burger joints
Besides Kike, Laurie and myself, we were joined as always by former Mariners Line Coach, Edu.
Additionally tonight, we had a special guest in current Gijón Wide Receiver Coach Angel Mangado joining us. He regaled us with many great and funny Spanish EuroBall stories.
A Senior Original Burger for Laurie
and the usual Cabrales Burger for me
GOOD TIMES INDEED!
I knew this
What will Friday bring?
Stay tuned . . .
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